Lawrence “Larry” Summers is retiring from his position at Harvard University after documents released by the Justice Department revealed additional details about his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Summers served as Treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and later became president of Harvard. Most recently, he taught at the university and served as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.
In a statement to Scripps News, a Harvard spokesperson said, "Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time.”
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Emails released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act show Summers and Epstein communicating as recently as 2018, years after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges involving prostitution with a minor, but before his 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
In one email, first reported by The Associated Press, Epstein told Summers he was a “pretty good wing man.” Summers then asked Epstein how he should respond to a woman he had recently met.
Summers stepped back from teaching in November 2025 after initially indicating he would continue his classes amid scrutiny over his ties to Epstein. According to people familiar with the matter, he will not teach or take on new advisees before his retirement.
In a previous statement, Summers said his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgment.”
